19 SPEC Kit 351: Affordable Course Content and Open Educational Resources
Comments N=13
The College of Education and Human Development project is primarily funded by a grant but some
support comes from the college generally. The bookstore focuses on affordability in their practices but
doesn’t fund anything specifically. The Libraries has allocated money for projects and staff.
Currently, no funding.
Grant funded by campus IT. Membership in the Open Textbook Network (OTN) and faculty incentives
associated with that membership funded by library special projects fund if we decide to join OTN.
Library’s general operating budget covers all library labor involved in OER.
HR parts of several FTE are working on the OER Initiative in the Libraries.
In the future we expect to receive funding from the provost’s office in terms of a faculty course release
for a faculty advocate to develop and increase awareness and knowledge among faculty and support
across schools and colleges.
The cash awards come out of the library’s discretionary funds (noted as “special project fund” on the
list above) however, discussions are underway to have these centrally funded by the campus senior
administration. Funds needed for acquisitions related to awarded projects come out of the library’s
regular operating budget.
The external grants were used in the first 5 years (2005–2010). The grants were from the Hewlett
Foundation. For now and the foreseeable future the general budget will support Open CourseWare.
The OER Interest Group recognizes the need for a central funding source to support a campus-
wide initiative.
This has not cost much yet. We did host a local program that cost about $6K and some travel expenses.
This is likely to be adjusted as the program develops pilot funds came from the IT budget and library
and IT in-kind support.
Thus far the only initiative we’ve implemented is the OTN faculty reviews. Those mini-grants were
paid for out of a Libraries’ special project fund. We don’t currently have a dedicated OER librarian. I am
co-chairing the OER Steering Committee with the director of our undergraduate library.
We in the library are hoping that with the recommendations from the Textbook Affordability Task
Force that the provost will add additional funds to expand the project. The Teaching &Learning Center
has indicated it would also want to add funding to the project.
We’re still in early planning stages and haven’t determined what funding there will be and what the
funding will be used for.
9. What items does the funding cover? Check all that apply. N=39
Faculty incentive or grant funds 29 74%
Library staff 16 41%
Technical support staff 12 31%
Software 10 26%
Faculty course release 7 18%
Equipment 7 18%
Other item 14 36%
Please specify the other item. N=14
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